This invention relates to doors, in particular to a method and apparatus for illuminating transparent panels such as but not limited to etched glass, stained glass, glazed glass and the like, preferably on entry type doors using longitudinal light sources such as neon tube lights mounted directly inside channels within the doors adjacent to outer edges of the transparent insert panels.
It has become popular of the years to use see-through partially opaque panels such as using elaborate stained glass panels with entry doors on homes. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 313,477 to Hall; U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,615 to Turner; U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,330 to Lewkowitz; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,768 to Herbst. While being aesthetically visible during daytime hours, any elaborate glass panels such as stained glass are not easily visible at night. Thus, these panels offer little if no aesthetic appeal at night.
Home owners have often required exterior lights in order to illuminate the outside of their entry doors that have usually encompassed the use of plane exterior mounted lamps that must be mounted to the walls adjacent to the doors. While popular, the wall mounted lamps do not uniformally illuminate the doors, nor provide an attractive light for the doors themselves. Also, most wall mounted lamps are limited to white light and have few color alternatives. Still furthermore, wall mounted lamps do little if no assistance to helping illuminate any elaborate glass type panels such as stained glass panels on entry doors.
Other types of well known exterior lights have included string lights. However, string lights are usually limited to being used during holidays, and also generally require the use of light bulbs, which can generate excessive heat which is dangerous, are easily breakable and cost substantial amounts in power costs when used over long periods of time. In addition, string lights do not illuminate the glass type insert panels of entry doors since they are attached outside of the doors.
Over the past years, several proposals have been made to illuminate portions of doors. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,303,616 to Brown; U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,210 to Weber et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,621 to Gewfrtz et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,744 to Catanese. However, these devices are limited to providing light about the outer frames of doors, and these devices do not allow for illuminating any glass inserts in the doors themselves. None of these devices provides the light source inside the door itself, and instead puts the light in surrounding framing about the doors. Still furthermore, these devices generally use light bulbs, which have excessive power costs, and generate heat and are not desirable for used over long periods of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,292 to Yokoyama et al. describes a surface light source for illuminating panels. However, this device is not directed to nor is described for safely and effectively illuminating glass insert panels on entry doors. There are no descriptions, teachings, nor controls for activating these lights within entry doors. In addition this reference relies on fluorescent tubes for their illumination which may use less power than traditional light bulbs but have other similar problems such as requiring ballasts to power the tubes. In addition fluorescent tubes are generally limited to white coloring. Thus, this device limits the aesthetic effects by not allowing the glass panel inserts on the entry doors to be illuminated by different colored lights.
Lights on doors have been proposed but still fail to directly illuminate any glass insert panels on the doors. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,010 to Camarota et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,615 to Maffrey et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,579 to Holloway. These devices are limited to lighting exterior attachments to the doors such as the door knobs, which does nothing to directly illuminate the glass type insert panels on the entry doors.
Thus, there exists the need for a practical solution for illuminating glass type panel inserts on entry doors without the above drawbacks.
The first objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for illuminating transparent panel inserts such as etched and/or stained glass panels, on entry doors in a uniform manner, without using any wall mounted or exterior mounted lights.
The second objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for illuminating transparent panel inserts on entry doors using light sources that last longer, use less power, and generate less heat than light bulbs.
The third objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for illuminating transparent panel inserts on entry doors with light sources inside the doors.
The fourth objective of this invention is to provide a method and system for illuminating transparent panel inserts on entry doors with light sources that can be easily interchanged with different colors as needed and desired.
The fifth objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for illuminating transparent panel inserts on entry doors with light sources that can be easily activated on and off, as well as be dimmed overtime.
The sixth objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system for illuminating transparent panel inserts on entry doors for use as a nightlight when used after dark.
A preferred embodiment of the novel door system for illuminating transparent panels on doors, can include a door having a light transparent panel on the door, the door mounted to a frame, light sources for illuminating at least one side edge of the panel, the light sources being located inside of the doors and controls for switching the illuminating the light sources on and off. The door can include an exterior entry door on a residence or commercial building. The light sources can include one or more light tubes such as neon lights that can be mounted within spring biased housings along side edge(s) of the transparent panel within channel(s) inside of the doors. The light sources can be mounted within shock absorbing members such as but not limited to O-rings and the like. The light sources can be activated by photocells, timers, and the like, and be selectively turned on and off only when the door is closed.